They are trained in mental health assistance and often are licensed paramedics or EMTs as well. Both witnesses described a high risk of sexual assault for women living on the streets and established it would not be unreasonable to sleep in a dark, but open location, rather than hidden out of view. We also called the nearby church’s pastor. He testified about the food bank and homeless services they offer to Eugene’s unhoused community. The food bank gave our client’s mom breakfast just the day before her death. Their security cameras had footage of her sleeping near the church, but also showed a lot of other pedestrian traffic. All three witnesses were able to humanize the struggles of those without shelter and explain the difficulties in trying to find a safe place to sleep in an unforgiving world. Our final witness was our client, the deceased woman’s adult daughter. She described her childhood with her mom and the ups-and-downs of their relationship. Even though she had not seen her mom in years, it was clear she cared for and still loved her. She had fond memories of her childhood, even though there was parental fighting and abuse. Our best argument we got from our client for the loss of society and companionship was her loss of what could have been — a loss of the chance to reconnect with her mom and rewrite their frayed relationship. We also elicited testimony about how our client searched every homeless shelter around the Bay Area looking for her mom after learning of her mom’s home foreclosure. The defense’s case in chief lasted one day. They put up a supervisor from the garbage company to talk about why their driver didn’t do anything wrong and had a fleet expert testify to the same effect. He argued their driver training was beyond the standard of care and the driver couldn’t have been expected to see the sleeping woman. They put up their own crash reconstructionist who argued the same thing and blamed the sleeping woman for her death. They also put up a human factors expert to attempt to argue that the backup camera screen inside the truck wasn’t very visible to the driver. None of the defense’s testimony landed very well with the jury, and Lucas’s crosses shredded each of the experts’ credibility. The reconstructionist ultimately agreed with our expert’s analysis and could only offer that the sleeping woman’s visibility to the driver was for six seconds instead of seven. During the defense’s case in chief, I was preparing our close. I’ve never been more nervous in my entire life than before giving that closing argument. I could sense we had a chance to win and I was determined to deliver the right message. My goal was to focus as much as possible on the defendants, their failure to take responsibility and blaming everybody but themselves. My closing was emotional and raw, but I spoke from the heart and the jury understood my anger. The defense opened his close by saying “I feel like I got a bunch of bullet holes in me after Mr. Davis’s close.” The jury’s faces expressed a sentiment of “yeah, you look like it, too.” The verdict came back for the plaintiff the next day. The jury awarded $500,000, and it was reduced by 28% comparative fault to $340,000. It was a tremendous result in a difficult case and one I will never forget. Fighting for the Unhoused continued from p. 19 20 Trial Lawyer | Fall 2024
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